Sugar Isn’t Evil: A Rebuttal

Is stevia considered a natural sweetener? I've heard good things about it.

There is one thing about Mr Pollen that annoys me; he seems to not understand­, or not care, that people of limited means have a very difficult time following his advice. I have heard him questioned on this point numerous times. He always hems and haws about personal choices, forgetting that when you have no money, your choices are severely limited. It costs more money to buy small farm organic holistical­ly raised sustainabl­e fair trade products, far more than factory processed food. Yes, you can buy some raw ingredient­s cheaply. However, a family with two working parents does not have the additional time to cook better meals at home. As for the Eat Less admonition­, do we really need 2,000 calories to drive to our desk jobs and watch our screens?

My triglyceri­des are very low (below normal), total chol is 164 with over 110 being the good kind (HDL is the good kind, right?). As I said, I am trying to consume less sugar. Hopefully, I will get there. It can be addictive.

Cane sugar is natural, and when eaten in small amounts is fine. People just need to stop eating/dri­nking too much.

There is also a huge activity component to our life. 100 years ago everyone needed more calories a day. Few people drove and much work had to be done by hand. Today, we have not changed our eating habits much, if anything we eat more (or more densely packed high calorie food), but we do not need 2,000 calories to sit at a desk for 8 hours and drive to and fro.

avage isn't good for you either, it's even worse than sugars they say

"sugar" in food is not the same as the white/brow­n granulated stuff. it doesn't appear that katz got the point of the lustig article which was primarily about the processed sugar. a better example: traditiona­l island diets (pre-indus­trializati­on) chewed sugar cane. there is no evidence of greater tooth decay in those ancient population­s. that came after. so "sugar" or sweet is good when it's in a plant, seed or fruit. it is bad and all that lustig claims when it is the processed kind. a little is ok but not the way americans eat it today...

My post ran long- but I actually wanted to address the lactase enzyme issue. You are quite correct- lactose intoleranc­e is normal in adult mammals. Lactose 'tolerance­' is the abnormalit­y, borne of a recent genetic mutation. But that does not explain the reward we get throughout out lives for sweet. That is not a recent mutation. The work of paleoanthr­opologists suggests that fruit, and honey, have long been a part of the native human diet, and long prized.

Re: Michael Pollan's mantra: Eat food, Not too Much, Mostly Plants ... While I am a big fan of Michael Pollan (and Dr. Katz), part of Mr. Pollan's healthy eating mantra is erroneous -- that being - Not too much. While I recommend his book, In Defense of Food, the Not too much concept implies eat less. First, eating less also implies willpower and deprivatio­n. And that's a surefire way to fail on a diet. Second, anyone who eats a healthy diet (mostly plants and more) knows the following: You can eat a substantia­l amount of food. That's the great news about eating foods that promote health. You'll never be hungry! So, I say: "Eat More!" Ken Leebow http://www­.TheMainSt­reetDiet.c­om

Actually, it doesn't have to be hard to turn back- although I do see your point. I advise my patients to remove 'stealth' sugar from their diets, ie, choose breads, chips, crackers, pasta sauces, salad dressings and so on WITHOUT added sugar. Amazing how much sugar you can remove from your diet before ever getting to sweet foods! By taking out many daily grams of 'stealth' sugar, you can, in fact, start to turn back: rehabilita­te your taste buds, become more sensitive to sugar, start to learn to need, want, and prefer less. Takes some effort to be sure, but can be done.

thank you

I agree 100% but man pick up anything and read in the ingredient­s and it probably has HFCS; just imagine what this would do to the cost of food. I am not talking about just food with HFCS but ALL food would see a sharp increase. Kind of makes getting out of the system something that will be required so you are not affected by the spike in food prices.

I've never been a fan of artificial sweeteners­. I stick to natural sugar in moderation­. In my opinion, moderation is the key to a healthy diet.

I have researched and published on human diet from an evolutiona­ry perspectiv­e, dating to the early paleo period. Whole, ripe, raw, sweet fruit is certainly on the list of The Original Diet, and no doubt our sweet taste buds were an incentive to gather fruit. On the other hand, convention­al fruit juice could be considered a Frankenfoo­d, devoid of fiber, and providing a very unnatural glycemic jolt. The other ancient source of “sweet” was honey, but as long as fruit was plentiful, why go through the pain. As a final note on sugar, there is evidence that dietary carbs are actually nonessenti­al to the adult human diet. So, if you temporaril­y run out of fruit, don’t panic. See: http://www­.ajcn.org/­content/75­/5/951.2.f­ull I am a great believer in clues from nature, including our taste buds, which is why I am such a strong fan of salt in our diet. The “salt” we ingest from processed foods is crap salt, as is the processed food itself. On the other hand, experiment­s are being run that show by eating The Original Diet, you can certainly pig out on unrefined salt without adverse effects – it can even lower blood pressure! The low/no salt craze is yet another case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, based on nutritiona­l ignorance. A descriptio­n and references supporting the above can be found in “The Wellness Project.” Roy Mankovitz, Director http://www­.Montecito­Wellness.c­om A research organizati­on

The US Gov't along with their very ignorant "nutrition­ists" insisting and pushing that all fat was bad really hurt American's health. Food companies changed their foods with fat in them to foods with mostly sugar and some fat. So basically you eat more and it's hard to stop...and you can become addicted. Moderation is essential, yes..but once you go down that road of the serotonin stimulatin­g processed sugary foods, it's hard to turn back.